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Little Bitty Lies: A Novel
Little Bitty Lies: A Novel
Little Bitty Lies: A Novel
Ebook535 pages7 hours

Little Bitty Lies: A Novel

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“Little white lies have never been so risky—or so much fun.” — Orlando Sentinel

New York Times bestselling author Mary Kay Andrews delivers a tantalizing tale about an abandoned Atlanta housewife and mother who tells one tiny white lie that sets her world spiraling outrageously out of control.

This winning and wonderful romp focuses on all the important things in life: marriage and divorce, mothers and daughters, friendship and betrayal. Throw in small town secrets, one woman’s lifelong quest for home, and the perfect chicken salad recipe, and you have an ideal escape for fans of Fannie Flagg, Jennifer Crusie, Adriana Trigiani, Emily Giffin, and the Sweet Potato Queens.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Release dateOct 13, 2009
ISBN9780061827372
Little Bitty Lies: A Novel
Author

Mary Kay Andrews

Mary Kay Andrews is The New York Times bestselling author of The Beach House Cookbook and more than twenty novels, including The Weekenders, Ladies' Night, Spring Fever, Summer Rental, The Fixer Upper, Deep Dish, Blue Christmas, Savannah Breeze, Hissy Fit, Little Bitty Lies, and Savannah Blues. A former journalist for The Atlanta Journal Constitution, she lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

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Rating: 4.276595744680851 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is the first book I read from Mary Kay Andrews. I found it really funny and scince I live in the south, i connected with the characters. I was an instant fan.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Ok, this is "chick lit" and I almost stopped reading it in the first few chapters, but I'm glad I didn't. It's funny and insightful and well written. And it delves a bit deeper than it first appears. It was satisfying, I must say, and I enjoyed it. Kathy Hogan Trocheck wrote this (and a couple of other "chick lit" books) under the pen name Mary Kay Andrews, and part of the reason I almost stopped reading it was that it just felt different from her writing usually does. Trocheck is the author of the Callahan Garrity mystery series, and those stories feel grittier and meatier than this one did to start with. But eventually, I was able to catch the rhythm of her writing in this genre and have to say that she did a pretty good job. I'll give it a 4 and order some more of her stuff from Booksfree.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was an easy, light read... much like Hissy Fit. It was a bit of a mystery, though, and kept me wanting to stay up all night and finish the book!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I never laughed so hard in my life. Great book & I didn't want it to end!!!!!
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    A few weeks ago I read Mary Kay Andrews' Savannah Blues and really enjoyed it, so I thought that I'd give Little Bitty Lies a try. The reviews that I read at Amazon pretty much said that it's okay but not as good as Savannah. And that pretty much hits it.Lies is the story of Mary Bliss McGowan, an Atlanta yuppie who doesn't realise that her marriage is in trouble until the night she finds a note from her husband telling her that he's gone - with all their joint assets. Mary Bliss responds by telling one 'little bitty lie' - that he's just out of town. The one little lie escalates until she and her best friend end up faking his death to collect the insurance.Andrews [who is really Atlanta author Kathy Trocheck] does a great job catching the Atlanta/Southern ambience, but it's hard to see Mary Bliss as a sympathetic character when she lies to her daughter and mother-in-law about her husband's death and when her major concern with the end of her marriage is financial. I'm giving this one two stars and hoping that Ms Andrews will slow down and do better preparation before she writes her next one.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    After reading lots of dark books for the past few months I decided to go a different direction. This was truly genteel fiction. Nothing to offend the masses, but quite humorous anyway. It was nice to see the 'good' girl win in the end :).
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    "Fiesty Humor - keeps you coming back for more! "
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Very fun, escapist read. An Atlanta schoolteacher is abandoned by her husband, who has stripped all their accounts bare. What happens next gives new meaning to "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Love all the Mary Kay Andrews books! Easy reads but keep you interested and fun characters - you could see yourself living in fair oaks and being friends with all of them
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Little Bitty Lies by Mary Kay AndrewsThis sometimes confusing, sort of depressing, yet at the same time, funny and poignant novel is written by the mystery writer Kathy Trocheck. Moreover, it sure looks like the transition to a slightly different style of mystery combined with female literature seems to have been made successfully! I have not read any of the mystery series but if they are half as good as the writing in this novel, I should be pleased.Yes, the writing was wonderful; the characters are fully fleshed out and believable. You will sometimes love and sympathize with Mary Bliss and Katherine and sometimes you want to smack them silly and hope that they end up in jail. Fortunately, while we only know of Parker, Mary Bliss’s sort of dearly departed husband, via her memories and his actions as told to us by the women and what they learn while snooping ---he is a cad, a rake a scoundrel and a major thief. He really isn’t a nice guy and death would be to easy for the likes of him. Then again, Mary Bliss and Katharine are perpetuating a fraud…or are they?There are so many characters that we could really hate, but Ms Andrews writes in such a talented way that even the most hateful of people are written so well that at times we can feel empathy for them. Well maybe except for Parker!This is an excellent little novel about what is most important to us. And what another person can do to us to bring us to our knees if we let them. This story shows that even someone who thinks they can’t do something-really can with the right motivations and the love of good friends behind us.This is small southern community at its best and it is a very satisfying read with a Happily-Ever-After, that I wasn’t sure was ever going to happen. I love books that keep you guessing!Be aware there is a recipe for her fabulous chicken salad at the end of the Kindle edition!

Book preview

Little Bitty Lies - Mary Kay Andrews

1

flower

Mary Bliss McGowan and Katharine Weidman had reached a point in the evening from whence there was no return. They had half a bottle of Tanqueray. They had limes. Plenty of ice. Plenty of time. It was only the Tuesday after Memorial Day, so the summer still stretched ahead of them, as green and tempting as a funeral home lawn. The hell of it was, they were out of tonic water.

Listen, Kate, Mary Bliss said. Why don’t we just switch to beer? She gestured toward her cooler. It had wheels and a long handle, and she hauled it down to the Fair Oaks Country Club pool most nights like the little red wagon she’d dragged all over town as a little girl. I’ve got four Molson Lights right there. Anyway, all that quinine in the tonic water is making my ankles swell.

She thrust one suntanned leg in the air, pointing her pink-painted toes and frowning. They looked like piggy toes, all fleshy and moist.

Or maybe we should call it a night. Mary Bliss glanced around. The crowd had been lively for a Tuesday night, but people had gradually drifted off—home, or to dinner, or inside, to their air conditioning and mindless summer sitcom reruns.

Bugs swarmed around the lights in the deck area. She felt their wings brushing the skin of her bare arms, but they never lit on Mary Bliss, and they never bit either. Somebody had managed to hook up the pool’s PA system to the oldies radio station. The Tams and the Four Tops, the same music she’d listened to her whole life—even though they were not her oldies but of a generation before hers—played on.

She and Katharine were the only adults around. Three or four teenaged boys splashed around in the pool, tossing an inflated beach ball back and forth. The lifeguard, the oldest Finley boy—Shane? Blaine?—sat on the elevated stand by the pool and glowered in their direction. Clearly, he wanted to lock up and go to the mall.

No, Katharine said, struggling out of her lounge chair. No beer. Hell, it’s early yet. And you know I’m not a beer drinker. She tugged at Mary Bliss’s hand. Come on, then. The Winn-Dixie’s still open. We’ll get some more tonic water. We’ll ride with the top down.

Mary Bliss sniggered and instantly hated the sound of it. Well-bred young ladies never drive with their tops down.

Katharine rolled her eyes.

The Weidmans’ red Jeep stood alone in the club lot, shining like a plump, ripe apple in the pool of yellow streetlamp light. Mary Bliss stood by the driver’s door with her hand out. Let me drive, Kate.

What? You think I’m drunk?

We killed half a bottle of gin, and I’ve only had one drink, Mary Bliss said gently.

Katharine shrugged and got in the passenger seat.

Mary Bliss gunned the engine and backed out of the club parking lot. The cool night air felt wonderful on her sweat-soaked neck and shoulders.

I can’t believe Charlie gave up the Jeep, Mary Bliss said. I thought it was his baby. Is it paid for?

What do I care? Katharine said, throwing her head back, running her fingers through the long blonde tangle of her hair. My lawyer says we’ve got Charlie by the nuts. Now it’s time to squeeze. Besides, we bought it with the understanding that it would be Chip’s to take to Clemson in the fall. I’m just using it as my fun car this summer. We’re having fun, right?

I thought freshmen weren’t allowed to have cars on campus, Mary Bliss said.

Charlie doesn’t know that, Katharine said.

Mary Bliss frowned.

Shut up and drive, Katharine instructed.

The Winn-Dixie was nearly deserted. A lone cashier stood at the register at the front of the store, listlessly counting change into her open cash drawer. Katharine dumped four bottles of Schweppes Tonic Water down on the conveyor belt, along with a loaf of Sunbeam bread, a carton of cigarettes, and a plastic tub of Dixie Darlin’ chicken salad.

Y’all got a Value Club card? the cashier asked, fingers poised on the keys of her register.

I’ve got better than that, Katharine said peevishly, taking a twenty-dollar bill from the pocket of her shorts. I’ve got cash money. Now, can we get the lead out here?

The fluorescent lights in the store gave Katharine’s deeply tanned face a sick greenish glow. Her roots needed touching up. And, Mary Bliss observed, it really was about time Katharine gave up wearing a bikini. Not that she was fat. Katharine Weidman was a rail. She ran four miles every morning, no matter what. But she was in her forties, after all, and the skin around her neck and chest and shoulders was starting to turn to corduroy. Her breasts weren’t big, but they were beginning to sag. Mary Bliss tugged at the neckline of her own neat black tank suit. She couldn’t stand it the way some women over thirty-five paraded around half naked in public—as if the world wanted to see their goods. She kept her goods tucked neatly away, thank you very much.

Mary Bliss made a face as she saw Katharine sweeping her groceries into a plastic sack.

Since when do you buy chicken salad at the Winn-Dixie? she asked, flicking the tub with her index finger.

It’s not that bad, Katharine said. Chip loves it, but then, teenaged boys will eat anything. Anyway, it’s too damn hot to cook.

Your mother made the best chicken salad I’ve ever tasted, Mary Bliss said. I still dream about it sometimes. It was just like they used to have at the Magnolia Room downtown.

Katharine managed a half-smile. Better, most said. Mama always said the sign of a lady’s breeding was in her chicken salad. White meat, finely ground or hand shredded, and some good Hellmann’s Mayonnaise, and I don’t know what all. She used to talk about some woman, from up north, who married into one of the Coca-Cola families. ‘She uses dark meat in her chicken salad,’ Mama told me one time. ‘Trailer trash.’

She’d roll over in her grave if she saw you feeding her grandson that store-bought mess, Mary Bliss was saying. They were right beside the Jeep now, and Mary Bliss had the keys in her hand, when Katharine shoved her roughly to the pavement.

What on earth? Mary Bliss demanded.

Get down, Katharine whispered. She’ll see us.

Who? Mary Bliss asked. She pushed Katharine’s hand off her shoulder. Let me up. You’ve got me squatting on chewing gum.

It’s Nancye Bowden, Katharine said, peeping up over the side of the Jeep, then ducking back down again. She’s sitting in that silver Lexus, over there by the yellow Toyota. My God!

What? What is it? Mary Bliss popped her head up to get a look. The Lexus was where Katharine had pointed. But there was only one occupant. A man. A dark-haired man. His head was thrown back, his eyes squeezed shut, his mouth a wide O, as if he were laughing at something.

You’re crazy, Katharine Weidman. I don’t see Nancye Bowden at all. She started to stand. I’m getting a crick in my calves. Let’s go home.

Katharine duck-walked around to the passenger side of the Jeep and snaked herself into the passenger seat. She slumped down in the seat so that her head was barely visible above the dashboard. I’m telling you she’s in there. You can just see the top of her head. Right there, Mary Bliss. With that guy. Look at his face, Mary Bliss. Don’t you get it?

Mary Bliss didn’t have her glasses. She squinted, tried to get the man’s face in better focus. Maybe he wasn’t laughing.

"Oh.

"My.

Lord.

Mary Bliss covered her eyes with both hands. She felt her face glowing hot-red in the dark. She fanned herself vigorously.

You’re such a virgin. Katharine cackled. What? You didn’t know?

That Nancye Bowden was hanging out in the Winn-Dixie parking lot giving oral sex to men in expensive cars? No, I don’t think she mentioned it the last time I saw her at garden club. Does Randy know?

Mary Bliss turned the key in the Jeep’s ignition and scooted it out of the parking lot, giving the silver Lexus a wide berth. She would die if Nancye Bowden saw her.

It’s called a blow job. Yes, I’m pretty sure Randy knows what Nancye’s been up to. But you can’t bring yourself to say it, can you? Katharine said, watching Mary Bliss’s face intently.

You have a very trashy mouth, Katharine Weidman. How would I know what perversion Nancye has been up to lately?

I guess y’all were down at Seaside when it happened. I just assumed you knew. Nancye and Randy are through. She moved into an apartment in Buckhead. He’s staying in the house with the kids, at least until school starts back in the fall, and his mother is watching the kids while Randy’s at work. Lexus Boy is some professor over at Emory. Or that’s what Nancye told the girls at that baby shower they had for Ansley Murphey.

I had to miss Ansley’s shower because we took Erin down to Macon for a soccer tournament, Mary Bliss said. I can’t believe I didn’t hear anything, with them living right across the street. The Bowdens? Are you sure? My heavens, that’s the third couple on the block. Just since the weather got warm.

Four, counting us, Katharine said. You know what they’re calling our end of the street, don’t you?

What?

Split City.

2

flower

Mary Bliss put on the turn signal as she approached her driveway. Katharine reached over and flipped the signal off, spilling the drink she’d mixed for herself on the way home from the club. By Mary Bliss’s count, it was Katharine’s seventh gin and tonic of the night.

You always do that, Katharine said. Who are you signaling for? It’s nearly midnight. There’s nobody around. Six hundred eighty-seven people live in Fair Oaks, and six hundred eighty-five of them are in bed, asleep. We are the only ones in this damn town who are awake. We are the only ones who even have a goddamn pulse.

Mary Bliss flipped the signal on again and completed her turn. By my count, it’s six hundred eighty-four. Parker’s probably still up, waiting for me to come home. And you forget, at least one of our neighbors is still awake, over there fornicating in the parking lot at the Winn-Dixie. Besides, it’s the law, Katharine. Suppose somebody came careening down the street behind us? Like an ambulance or a fire truck? They could rear-end us, big as anything. You may drive like a bat out of torment anytime you like, but when I’m behind the wheel this is how I drive. Safe.

You do everything safe, Katharine grumbled, mopping the gin and tonic off the Jeep’s seat with her bathing suit cover-up. You’re the only woman I know who’ll insist on a seat belt in her coffin. And if you want to get technical, Miss Priss, what Nancye Bowden was doing in that Lexus was not actually fornicating, as far as I could see.

I’m glad you’re thinking of my funeral and Nancye Bowden’s sex life when your own life is such a wreck right now, Mary Bliss said. You really are a mess, Katharine. No wonder Charlie left. I’m surprised it took him this long.

Ha! Katharine said, braying unattractively. Charlie likes round numbers. He wanted to wait until we’d been married exactly twenty years. Not nineteen or twenty-one, but twenty. That way he could tell his therapist he’d given it two decades and the whole thing was hopeless. It makes him less of a bad guy, don’t you see?

Mary Bliss turned off the ignition and unfastened her seat belt. He’s not all that bad a guy, you know. Charlie is a decent human being. I still think you two could have worked things out, if you’d just tried a little harder. Now look at you. You’re a wreck. Charlie’s in therapy. Chip’s unhappy. Doesn’t it feel like your whole life is turned upside down?

Katharine pretended to be hurt. "Hey. You’re my best friend. You have to be on my side. Why is it so hard for you to believe that I’m better off without the jerk? Anyway, I like upside down. I’ve had normal. Normal sucks."

I just wish you’d tried couples counseling, Mary Bliss said.

Hey, Katharine said loudly, determined to get Mary Bliss off the therapy track. Did I tell you what I did today?

You mean yesterday, Mary Bliss said, checking her wristwatch. It’s officially past midnight. And I shudder to think about what you did.

Katharine giggled. I called Grimmy. Actually, she called me first. Looking for Charlie. He won’t return her calls. He’s been out of the house two months, and he still hasn’t broken it to his mommy that he’s getting divorced. Keeps saying her poor old heart won’t take it. Which is a load of crap. Grimmy’s just playing possum. That old biddy will be playing bridge tournaments when we’re all dead and in the grave. Charlie just doesn’t want to admit to Grimmy that there’s trouble in paradise.

You didn’t tell her, did you? Like everybody else in town, Mary Bliss McGowan was terrified of Katharine’s mother-in-law. Sarah Grimes Weidman, known to all as Grimmy, was eighty years old, and as far as Mary Bliss knew, nobody had ever gotten the better of her. Didn’t Grimmy have bypass surgery last year?

Sure did, Katharine said. And then she went on a cruise to Alaska with the Sojourner’s Sunday School class at Fair Oaks First United Methodist six weeks later. I’m tired of everybody tippy-toeing around that old bag. So when she called yesterday, I told her, ‘Look, Grimmy. You and Charlie need to have a chat. He’s got some important news to share with you.’

Katharine fished around in her plastic cup until she found the slice of lime. She sucked on it loudly. Know what Grimmy thought? She thought maybe Charlie lost a big wad in the stock market. Talk about denial. She still thinks Chip was born two months premature. The world’s only eleven-pound preemie.

She shook her head. Gawd. So I said, ‘Grimmy, here’s the deal. Charlie’s left me and I’m divorcing his ass. He’s moved in with his girlfriend. Your son is pushing fifty and he’s living with a twenty-nine-year-old named Tara. And here’s the rest of the news flash: I am not a natural blonde, and I haven’t been a virgin since I was fifteen. Also—Chip didn’t go to Woodward Academy because he wanted to play lacrosse, he went because his grades weren’t good enough to get into Westminster, and we couldn’t afford to donate a new library so they’d bend the rules.’

What did she do? Mary Bliss’s voice was hushed.

She hung up. Ten minutes later, she called back, tried to disguise her voice, and asked for Chip. So I hung up on her. It felt so good, I called her back and hung up again as soon as she answered the phone.

That’s awful, Mary Bliss said. Even if it is Grimmy. What if she’d had a heart attack? Wouldn’t you have felt guilty?

No way, Katharine said, shaking her head vehemently. I hope she does blow a valve. When she dies, all the Coca-Cola stock goes to Chip. And he’s not speaking to his dad right now.

You want my advice?

No, I do not.

Mary Bliss plunged ahead. She’d been offering Katharine unsolicited advice ever since the day they’d met at the Fair Oaks Country Club swim meet, when Chip was seven and her own daughter, Erin, was six, and Mary Bliss had taken Katharine aside and tactfully suggested that a thong bathing suit was not appropriate for youth-oriented events. Not club-sponsored ones, anyway. Katharine had laughed in her face, told her not to be such a biddy, and offered her a wine cooler. They had been friends ever since. Katharine never took her advice, but it made Mary Bliss feel better to be the voice of reason.

Clean up your act, Kate, Mary Bliss said. Don’t alienate Charlie’s friends and family. Stop leaving those obscene messages on his answering machine. Stop ordering all that Victoria’s Secret stuff and putting it on his American Express card just to piss off Tara. Face facts. Charlie’s not totally over you. Why else would he still be coming over for Sunday supper? It’s not like he comes to see Chip. Chip doesn’t even speak to his daddy. Charlie comes over because he wants to see you. To keep the door open.

Katharine made a disparaging, pooting noise. That ship has sailed, honey. You and I both know he’s freeloading off me because Tara the bitch-whore can’t even fix microwave popcorn. And this is his way of keeping her guessing. But I’m not guessing anything. Trust me, M. B., it’s over.

You’re telling me you wouldn’t take him back? Right now? If he showed up at your door and said it had all been a hideous mistake, and he wanted to take you to Paris and prove how much he still loved you?

Not even if he showed up with a twelve-carat diamond and grew a twelve-inch penis and knew what to do with it, Katharine said. She jiggled the ice in her cup impatiently, wanting to fix herself another drink, but knew it would just get Mary Bliss on a jag about her drinking.

Talk about denial, Mary Bliss said. Face it, sugar. It’s not over yet. You’ve only been separated a few months. You and Charlie are right for each other. You’re too screwed up for anybody else. It’s destiny, Katharine. Besides, you know my theory about marriage.

Katharine deliberately crunched a piece of ice, knowing it set Mary Bliss on edge, just as did gum-smacking or finger-tapping. Which cockeyed theory is that? The one that says if a man makes more than a hundred thousand a year and has full medical and dental coverage, you’re morally obligated to have sex with him more than once a pay period?

I never said that, Mary Bliss said. Don’t be crude.

Spiritual commitments? Children of broken homes inherit a legacy of shame and guilt?

You know what I’m talking about, Mary Bliss said, ignoring the ice-crunching. A marriage is like a pet poodle. Poodles have a certain life expectancy. But lots of times, the poor thing just keeps on ticking and takes a licking. It may be old and blind and make tee-tee all over the rug in the den, but it has a life force of its own. It doesn’t matter when you think it’s over. It’s not over until it’s all played out. And your marriage isn’t all played out yet, Katharine. Believe me, I’ve seen it happen so many times. Right now, you’re hurt and upset, so you’re trying to strike out at Charlie. But really, you’re only hurting yourself.

Gawd, Katharine said, fumbling around on the floor of the Jeep for the gin bottle. What do you call that figure of speech? An anachronism? That’s the worst kind of anachronism I ever heard. Comparing marriage to an incontinent poodle.

Mary Bliss had been an English major. It’s called an analogy, she said.

Katharine found the bottle and shakily poured more gin into her plastic cup. The tonic bottle had rolled out of reach, so she didn’t bother with the niceties. She was tired of niceties, and she was even more tired of well-meaning advice. That’s the worst damn aneurysm in the history of Western civilization. She knew she was drunk and she knew she was slurring her words. Sloppy drunk. Stinking drunk for the fourth night in a row. She felt great.

She steadied herself and held her cup at a distance, to signal that she had something important to say.

My marriage is nothing like some damn Pekinese. For your information, Mrs. McGowan, my marriage is dead. Flatline. No pulse, no brain activity. Certainly no sex activity. Go on inside now, Mary Bliss. Tell Parker McGowan what a lucky man he is. Hell, give him a blow job while you’re at it. I can drive home. It’s only a block.

Mary Bliss grabbed the drink out of Katharine’s hand and threw it out the window of the Jeep. Stop it. You’re revolting. Just leave the car here and walk home. I’ll walk with you.

No way, Katharine said. Charlie cruises the neighborhood every night, after he thinks I’ve already gone to bed. If the Jeep isn’t there, he’ll start calling and raising hell. If he sees it over here, he’ll think I’m over here boo-hooing to you and Parker.

Maybe he’ll think you miss him, Mary Bliss said. Maybe he’s already come to his senses. He wouldn’t go looking for you unless he missed you, idiot.

He’s the idiot, Katharine said, yawning. He misses the Jeep, not me. She reached over and opened Mary Bliss’s door. Shoo. Go home. Parker probably thinks you’ve been abducted by aliens.

Mary Bliss reached for her beach bag. Parker knows I’m with you. And he agrees with me that you and Charlie should get back together. He even told Charlie that.

Katharine climbed over the console and into the driver’s seat. Nimble as anything, despite her advanced state of intoxication.

You know the problem with you, Mary Bliss? You keep assuming that everybody else’s marriage is like yours. You have no idea what a real marriage is like. You and Parker are like Ozzie and Harriet, Mary Bliss. You’re a couple of dinosaurs.

Nice aneurysm. Maybe so, Mary Bliss said. She blew Katharine a kiss. Sweet dreams, Kate. And don’t forget to lock up.

3

flower

All the lights were on, the television in the den was blaring, and the CD player in the kitchen was blaring Erin’s current favorite music, some sort of gangster rap whose nasty lyrics made the large vein in Mary Bliss’s forehead throb in indignation.

She walked through the house, switching off lights, the television, and the CD player. She set the burglar alarm in the kitchen, put some dirty dishes in the dishwasher, and turned it on.

The bedroom was dark. She could just see the green glow of the clock radio. Twelve-thirty. She felt her way to the closet, dropped her damp bathing suit and shorts in the hamper there, and pulled on a clean cotton nightgown.

In the bathroom, she brushed her teeth and creamed her face with moisturizers, frowning at the memory of Katharine’s wrinkled neck. Mary Bliss’s mother’s skin had been magnolia-smooth until she was in her fifties, until the time the cancer began eating its way through her body and her skin grew translucent and waxen yellow. Mary Bliss peered into the mirror, to see if she could find any trace of her mother there. Her eyes were certainly Mama’s—hazel-green, dark-lashed, with surprisingly strong, dark eyebrows.

But the nose was Daddy’s—stubby, no-nonsense, a workingman’s nose—her lips full and lush, Harker lips, her mother informed her, pursing her own narrow lips, a sign that Harker lips were not a desirable family trait.

Erin was a McGowan through and through, everybody said. Meemaw had peered through the glass in the Piedmont Hospital nursery and just crowed with delight at the sight of her long, narrow granddaughter. Look at those feet! She’s got her daddy’s feet for sure.

Mary Bliss never said as much, but she’d done a complete inventory and found several of her own family traits in her infant daughter—the folds of her ear, the long neck, the high forehead, even Mary Bliss’s own thick, dark hair. She’d watched anxiously as Erin grew and changed, anxious that those small traces of Mary Bliss’s own family, all dead and gone now, would remain in her own child.

She switched off the bathroom light and made her way easily to her side of the bed. She pulled back the sheets on the big four-poster bed. No pillows. She smiled to herself. Parker had stolen them again. He was such a pillow hog.

Honey? she whispered tentatively. She pulled herself close to the warm, drowsing form in the middle of the bed. Park? You awake?

But the smell was all wrong. Perfume instead of antiperspirant. And long, thick hair, curled over a bare shoulder.

Mommy? Erin’s voice was groggy. Where’s Daddy?

4

flower

She sat on the floor of Parker’s closet, held the note in her hand, and dialed Parker’s cell phone number. No answer. She dialed again, squinting at the readout window on her own phone to make sure she hadn’t made a mistake. But the number was correct, and nobody was answering.

Mary Bliss put the phone down again and looked at the note.

The bastard hadn’t even bothered to use a whole sheet of paper. It was written on the back of a junk mail envelope.

MB, it said.

I’m gone. Mama’s all paid up at the nursing home. Tell Erin I’ll call when I’m settled. You are a good woman, and I’m sorry things didn’t work out. Sincerely, A. Parker McGowan.

Mama?

Mary Bliss crawled to the door of the closet. Erin was wrapped in the big comforter, huddled in the middle of the king-sized bed. Her dark hair stood on end. One side of the oversized T-shirt had slipped off her slender shoulder, and the hazel eyes were clouded with sleep and confusion. Again, as always, her daughter reminded her of a just-hatched duckling. Mary Bliss thought she felt a jagged pain ripping through her right ventricle. It was only love.

Did you forget again? That Daddy was going out of town?

Of course. Out of town. Way out of town.

Stupid old me, Mary Bliss said, grimacing, giving herself a comic knock on the head. Katharine made me drink gin and tonic at the pool tonight. You know how your mama gets when she drinks likker. Of course Daddy’s out of town. Dallas, I think. What time did you get home, sweet girl?

Her lies came out smoothly, easily. Mary Bliss swallowed and felt the bile rising in her throat. They were just little lies.

The movie got out at ten, Erin said. But Lizbeth had to have her quarter-pounder and fries, so we went to McDonald’s afterwards. I swear, that girl must have a tapeworm. And she never gets a zit or gains a pound. I hate her guts. And she told me tonight that she has a crush on Andrew Gilbert. Oh my God! Can you believe that? Last year he asked her out every day, and she wouldn’t even look at him. When we got home tonight, I came in here to watch Letterman. The cable’s messed up in my room. Guess I fell asleep. Are you sure Daddy’s in Dallas?

A fine bead of sweat raised itself on Mary Bliss’s upper lip. She looked down. Her cotton gown was soaked, clinging to her chest and arms. She had to catch her breath, had to think.

She stood up and walked unsteadily to the bed, catching the bedpost with her right hand, grateful for the support.

Honey, to tell the truth, I can’t keep it all straight. You know Daddy. He’s always on the move. With the holiday and all, Libby must have forgotten to fax me his itinerary. I’ll check in the morning.

Erin nodded and yawned widely. Okay if I sleep in here with you? It’s so hot in my room. I think you need to get the air conditioning people over here. I won’t wake you when I go to work in the morning.

Erin had a summer job at the Gap. It paid better than lifeguarding at the club, which she had done last summer, and she also got a discount on clothes.

You better wake me up, Mary Bliss said, easing down into the bed. I can’t sleep all day long, you know. Just because it’s summer. Teachers have stuff to do too.

It was an unspoken rule in the McGowan house. Whenever one of them was away, Erin usually slept in the big bed upstairs. None of them felt this was odd or inappropriate, even though Erin was seventeen, going to be a senior this year at Fair Oaks Academy. Anyway, it was mostly Mary Bliss who ended up sharing the bed with Erin. Parker’s software consulting business seemed to take him out of town two or three weeks of every month.

She waited until Erin’s breath grew soft and sweet and regular, then peered over the mound of pillows her daughter had stacked up, like a moat surrounding a castle.

Erin had been a fretful baby, never sleeping through the night until she was nearly four. Now, though, she seemed to be catching up on all those lost hours. She slept as late as she dared on school mornings, liked a nap in the afternoons, and slept ’til noon most Saturdays.

Mary Bliss kissed her fingertip and planted it tenderly on the top of her daughter’s head.

She took the note, crumpled and damp with her own sweat, and read it again. She swept her hands through the row of clothes hanging on Parker’s side of the closet. His dress shirts, slacks, suits, sport coats, and ties were undisturbed. The shoe trees poked out of the line of wingtips and loafers. She opened the top drawer of the dresser. Neat balls of dark dress socks. But no white socks. She opened the next drawer down. His underwear had been cleaned out. Same with his shorts and T-shirts. She looked again at the row of shoes. No tennis shoes. He’d packed, all right, but not for business.

She flipped off the closet light and tiptoed downstairs to the den.

Parker had laughed at her when she told him this was her dream house. It was just a little cottage, really, a Craftsman bungalow on the nicest street in Fair Oaks. The house had been a shabby mess when they’d bought it, just before Erin was born. Parker always meant for them to move out of Fair Oaks and into Druid Hills, which he considered a nicer Atlanta neighborhood. He wanted them to join the Druid Hills Country Club, one of the more exclusive golf clubs in town, like the Piedmont Driving Club, or Ansley or the Peachtree Golf Club.

Parker had talked about taking up golf, once his business was doing really well. Fair Oaks Country Club was nice enough, but in the past it didn’t really have the glamour of the better-known clubs. The price of in-town housing in Atlanta had skyrocketed in the past five years, and now Fair Oaks was considered an enclave of exclusivity. Suddenly their cozy little four-bedroom, two-bath on the big half-acre lot was worth maybe ten times what they’d originally paid for it. It made Mary Bliss dizzy to think about it.

This den was supposed to be their little boy’s room. She’d waited, kept Erin’s crib there, along with the toy chest and the changing table. Then she hit thirty, and then Parker hit forty, and she knew there would be no second child. She’d fretted about it but knew better than to bring up the subject of infertility with Parker, who liked things just the way they were, thank you.

When Erin was twelve, Mary Bliss had found a leather sofa on sale at Rich’s, and she’d had some bookshelves made and refinished Parker’s granddaddy’s desk from the textile mill, hand-polished the old walnut until it shone like satin.

She sat at the desk now and looked around. No papers in the fax machine. No light blipped on the message machine. The desktop had been swept clean. Hospital-clean. So it was true. Parker was gone.

She felt that jagged pain in her chest again. What if she had a heart attack? Right now—with Parker gone Lord knows where, and Erin upstairs, sound asleep in their bed?

No, it wasn’t a heart attack, she decided. It was panic. Dread. Again she felt the same wave of nausea that had swept over her upstairs, where she’d crouched on the floor, reading the note by the closet light.

Gone. Gone where? And why?

Their life together was seamless as far as she knew. No major fights, no money worries. Mary Bliss taught at the public school, kept house, cooked, did volunteer work at the church and Erin’s private school. She visited Parker’s mother, Eula, once a week at the Fair Oaks Assisted Living Facility. They had dinner parties, went on vacation. Damn it, this was not a broken home. She had a normal, happy marriage. Didn’t she?

The problem was, one half of the marriage equation was gone and unavailable for polling.

She found herself praying, whispering aloud. Please don’t let it be true. Please don’t let it be true. Mary Bliss clamped her Harker lips together to make the praying stop.

The bank statements were neatly bundled together with rubber bands in the bottom drawer of the desk. When they’d first married, Mary Bliss had kept the household bills. She was good at it; liked toting up numbers, making a budget, keeping their little family ship afloat. But a year ago, Parker had insisted that his computer software could do a much better job of all that, so she’d reluctantly handed over the bill-paying to him.

It had hurt her feelings, his taking away her job, but she’d gone ahead and handed over the checkbook, and after a few months of not worrying over how many ATM withdrawal charges they were paying, Mary Bliss found she did not miss bookkeeping quite as much as she’d expected.

Everything was on the computer, she was sure. The problem was, Mary Bliss didn’t know where. She knew how to play solitaire and blackjack on the computer, knew how to pick up e-mail messages from Parker and her friends and former Agnes Scott classmates, but she had no idea where everything else could be.

She looked at the bank statements. For the first two months of the year, the balances in their checking, savings, and money market accounts looked fine. The checking account balance was a little low, but Parker did that intentionally because the bank didn’t pay interest on checking.

In March, the balance on all the accounts seemed to start dropping dramatically.

She skipped ahead to the most recent statement. May. It had been mailed only two days earlier. She looked at the number on the last sheet of paper and blinked. This had to be wrong. But the right account number was listed at the top of the sheet.

One time, a year ago, Parker had called from the airport in San Diego and asked her to call the computerized phone number to move some money around in their accounts. It’s strictly for idiots, he’d said when she’d protested that she didn’t know how. Just listen to the instructions and punch in the codes when you’re given the prompt.

She looked at the May statement again, found the telebanking number at the top of the first sheet. She dialed the number, followed the prompts, and listened, her pencil poised.

Zero. Zero in checking. Zero in savings. Zero in their money market account.

She heard a snapping noise and looked down. She’d broken the pencil in half.

5

flower

Mary Bliss barely made it to the downstairs powder room. After the first spasm of nausea subsided, she managed to kick the door shut with her foot so that her retching wouldn’t echo through the house. She had no idea how long she stayed like that, sprawled on the cold tile floor, hugging the commode, bleating and sobbing and cursing and praying.

Finally, she got to her feet, scrubbed her face with cold water, and rinsed out her mouth with a tiny sample bottle of mouthwash she found in the cupboard under the sink.

The woman in the mirror stared back at her with red-rimmed eyes and skin gone pale under the summer tan.

Christ, she moaned.

After a while, she forced herself to go back to the den. Parker had made no attempt to hide what he’d done. She found the stack of bills tossed in the top drawer of the desk, the dunning notices paper-clipped to the front of each envelope. Atlanta Gas Light. Georgia Power. Southern Bell. Cablevision. Fulton County Tax Assessor’s Office. Piedmont Savings and Loan. Visa, American Express, Talbot’s, Land’s End.

When she’d opened all the envelopes, faced all the facts, the desktop was littered with the pieces of paper that traced their lives for the last four months. The special dinners at Babette’s Café and Bones. Erin’s prom dress, $240 from Nordstrom’s. Four steel-belted radial tires for the minivan. Two black canvas Voyager suitcases from Land’s End, and six cotton pique sports shirts, for a total of $377.86.

But there were no other clues. No plane tickets or hotel reservations or rental cars. Nothing to explain Parker’s treachery, his decision to steer their little family ship smack into the shoals of humiliation and despair.

Mary Bliss reached across the mound of paper and picked up the framed photo by the telephone. It was an old black-and-white snapshot. Parker, his mama and daddy (bless his heart, Grampa Mac had his hands full with Eula), and Mary Bliss, holding baby Erin, standing in front of the cottage at the Cloister. The photo was taken right before Grampa Mac got sick. He’d taken them all to the Cloister for Easter that year. There was a palm tree in the background, and they were all tanned, smiling, looking, Mary Bliss always thought, a little like a southern version of the Kennedys. In the photo, Mary Bliss had Erin tilted toward the camera; Parker’s hand rested lightly on the nape of Mary Bliss’s bare neck, while Mary Bliss looked up at Parker in something like adoration, and one strap of her sundress had fallen off her shoulder. Grampa Mac was smiling down

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